Men Are a Key Target of Benetton's Striking Women's Empowerment Film

#UnitedbyHalf Campaign Is Rolling Out on International Women's Day

Editor's Pick

A female empowerment-themed campaign launched in India by Benetton on Valentine's Day is to be rolled out globally for International Women's Day.

The campaign, airing with the tagline #UnitedByHalf, promotes gender equality and features a montage of different Indian women in positions of strength and power and breaking social taboos. They include a group of older women bowling in saris, a little girl arm wrestling a little boy, a woman taking the initiative in bed, a pregnant woman working at her laptop while her husband minds her child, women helping their partners to move furniture or change a tire, and working women holding up signs demanding equal pay. "We are not the better halves, or worse. Definitely not the weaker halves. All we want is our half," states the female voiceover.

The spot was created by Creativeland Asia and produced by Oink Films. Globally, the campaign is overseen by Gianluca Pastore, Benetton's worldwide communications director.

India is Benetton's biggest market outside Italy, and the brand is particularly popular among men, who are a key target of the new campaign, which seeks to persuade them to recognize women as equal partners and highlight the need for genuine equality. (The approach reminds us of another strong gender equality-themed Indian spot, Ariel's award-winning "Share the Load" from 2016.)

Since launching in India, the film has had over 7.7 million views on social media, and its hashtag trended on Twitter nationally on three different days.

Chiara Mio, who leads Benetton Group's Sustainability program and all its Women Empowerment initiatives, said in a statement: "We're proud to be working on direct projects to improve the lives of women in developing countries but, with a major presence in India, we want to do more. This new campaign takes our message of women empowerment directly into one of our biggest global markets, notably for menswear."